Six stranded hikers airlifted off mountain

EAST COUNTY:
Six hikers were rescued Thursday night after they became stranded on an East County mountain, officials said.

The hikers, members of the Desert Angels, a group that searches for missing immigrants, were found about 10:40 p.m. on a mountain near Japatul Valley Road and Interstate 8, sheriff's Lt. Hope Andrews said.

Two of the hikers had fallen and injured their knees and couldn't make it down the mountain, Andrews said.

A San Diego Fire-Rescue Department helicopter crew responded shortly before midnight and lifted all the hikers out with a hoist. No one required medical transportation.

Andrews said deputies learned of the hikers' plight when a family member called Riverside officials and reported that the group had not returned.

— K.K.

Ailing diver evacuated from boat off Mexico

The U.S. Coast Guard evacuated a scuba diver from a charter boat in Mexican waters yesterday after he lost consciousness.

The crew of the Humboldt, a diving boat based in Mission Bay, contacted the Coast Guard shortly after noon reporting that one of the divers was in and out of consciousness, Coast Guard spokesman Henry Dunphy said.

A rescue boat met the Humboldt in Mexican waters and took the man, 45, to San Diego. He regained consciousness and was reported to be in good condition after medics evaluated him, Dunphy said.

— K.D.

CRIME WATCH

Man and woman robbed at fitness center lot

LA MESA:
Three robbers beat a man and woman unconscious and stole their belongings in a fitness center parking lot Thursday night before running to a nearby trolley station, police said.

A woman, 34, waiting in the 24 Hour Fitness parking lot on Grossmont Center Drive was approached shortly before 8:30 p.m. by two men who demanded her purse. After she gave them her purse, they grabbed her shoulder and pushed her up against a tree, where she hit her head and briefly lost consciousness, police said.

A 31-year-old man tried to intervene when a third robber, who had been acting as a lookout, approached him from behind and struck him in the back of the head. The man lost consciousness for a short time; when he came to, he was being kicked and punched by the three robbers.

He gave the men his property after one of them lifted his shirt to display a dark semiautomatic handgun in his waistband, police said.

The man and woman were taken to the hospital for treatment.

— K.K.

Police say bomb threat at high school was a hoax

SANTEE:
Classes went on as normal at West Hills High School yesterday after a bomb threat a day earlier that authorities have said was a hoax.

Sheriff's officials arrested two boys who are students at the school after investigating Thursday night. They were booked into Juvenile Hall.

A teacher discovered a note on campus about 3:50 p.m. Thursday alluding to a bomb detonation at 8 a.m. Deputies searched the campus but found no suspicious devices.

Deputies and school officials examined class assignments to match the handwriting on the note and detained the two boys. The pair were interviewed and later arrested on suspicion of making a false report of a bomb and conspiracy.

Deputies made a second sweep of the campus yesterday morning before classes, and nothing was found, the Sheriff's Department said. A school resource officer remained on campus.

Catherine Martin, a spokeswoman for the Grossmont Union High School District, said about 30 more students than usual were absent yesterday.

— K.D.

In other crime news

SAN DIEGO:
A pedestrian was robbed at gunpoint Thursday night while walking in the University City area, police said. The man was walking along Judicial Drive near Golden Haven Drive about 10:30 p.m. when he was approached by an armed man who took $200 from him, said police Officer Brad Ruff.

— K.K.

CARLSBAD:
U.S. Border Patrol agents arrested 21 illegal immigrants early yesterday as they got off a smuggling boat at Carlsbad State Beach, officials said. Fifteen men, five women and a 16-year-old boy were detained after a brief search by sheriff's deputies and Border Patrol agents. Of the 21, three were wearing life vests. All 21 were Mexican nationals, authorities said.

— K.K.

ACCIDENT WATCH

Route 56 crash victim identified as S.D. woman

SAN DIEGO:
The Medical Examiner's Office has identified the woman killed in a crash off westbound state Route 56 in Rancho Peñasquitos this week as Jacquline Rose O'Day of San Diego.

O'Day, 23, suffered blunt-force head injuries in the crash, which occurred either Wednesday night or early Thursday, according to the California Highway Patrol, which is seeking witnesses.

A passing motorist saw the car about 5:45 a.m. Thursday.

O'Day, who was in the Army, was found inside a Volkswagen Jetta beneath the freeway on Carmel Valley Road just west of Camino del Sur.

Anyone with information is asked to call the CHP at (858) 637-3800, or Crime Stoppers anonymously at (888) 580-8477.

— A.M.

FIRE WATCH

Pauma Valley brush fire subdued in 15 minutes

NORTH COUNTY:
A brush fire caused by lightning yesterday in Pauma Valley was quickly knocked down in a ground and aerial attack, Cal Fire said.

The half-acre fire was reported about 3:20 p.m. on a slope off Rincon Ranch Road and South Mesa Drive. It was burning uphill into a grove near structures, said Cal Fire spokeswoman Roxanne Provaznik.

The fire was surrounded and its spread stopped in 15 minutes. One crew remained to mop up hot spots.

— S.S.

COURT WATCH

Military court denies ex-drill instructor's appeal

SAN DIEGO:
The Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals has denied an appeal by a former drill instructor convicted of abusing recruits at Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego.

Jerrod Glass alleged that improper command influence had affected his November 2007 court-martial on charges that he abused 23 recruits by hitting them, throwing things at them and stomping on their bathroom kits.

A panel of officers and senior enlisted service members found him guilty of eight counts of assault, maltreatment, destruction of property and violating a lawful order. They sentenced him to six months in the brig.

Glass' lawyers said Lt. Col. Robert Scott ordered the officer investigating the alleged abuses to make his report tougher.

Last month, the appeals court said Glass failed to prove that Scott had used his influence to illegally influence the court-martial. Glass, 27, was released from prison in spring 2008. He now lives in Phoenix.

— S.L.

Escondido woman pleads not guilty in arson case

NORTH COUNTY COURTS:
An Escondido woman accused of setting fires at the converted house where she and others lived pleaded not guilty yesterday to charges of arson and assault with a deadly weapon.

If convicted, Jade Kimberly Havlik, 46, could be sent to prison for up to nine years. She was arrested Wednesday shortly after the fire started about 5 p.m. on Juniper Street near Clark Street.

Authorities said the house had been converted into apartments, and smoke could be seen from the second story when fire crews arrived.

Vista Superior Court Judge Marshall Hockett set bail at $250,000.

Deputy District Attorney Chandelle Konstanzer said Havlik assaulted a neighbor who lived in an upstairs apartment on Sept. 25, a few days before the fire. Havlik was arrested and released Tuesday.

The next day, Havlik poured gasoline in her living room and on the front door of the neighbor's apartment and lighted the fire, Konstanzer said. The neighbor was not home at the time.

— D.L.

Second trial ordered in bogus-deed case

SAN DIEGO COURTS:
Terry Lee Herron, who also goes by King Solomon II, will be retried on felony charges relating to filing bogus grant deeds on San Diego County homes he did not own.

In August, he was tried with co-defendant Maurice Simmons. Simmons was found guilty in September of filing official-looking grant deeds with the county recorder's office on six homes, five of them in Chula Vista.

The jury was unable to reach a verdict on Herron.

The District Attorney's Office decided to retry Herron, and in a Superior Court hearing yesterday, Herron was deemed competent to stand trial. A new trial date has not been set yet.